The Wolf Sin of Rage
by Jack Rippling
Summary: Gut's has finally finished what he set out to do so long ago. But just as the deed is done, the target of his rage curses him with strange magic and he's pulled from his world. Now he's in a strange new land where he has to learn to survive all over again. And, believe it or not, this place is even stranger then Midland.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Blood slowly drips to the ground as the two contestants prepare to make their final move. With his goals pushing him forward, Guts lifts Dragonslayer with great speed, flinging some of the entrails still lingering on the blade off in one swift motion. covering those who were lying on the ground behind him. The so called angels bested by one who wore their own brand, laying dead on the ground. Only the last, Femto, had kept up with the assault. He stands alone amidst the remains of the former God Hand, his own sword covered in the blood of his long time enemy. Cuts and deeper wounds covered Gut's form, but he didn't care. He couldn't be bothered to care, because rage filled his heart as his inner demons forced him to move forward, past even his own limits. His vision clouded and his sword ready, this next swing would decide all their fortunes. He could see Femtos' resolve as his face harden, both remembering their last battle for an instant, faces set in ragged determination. In their minds, they remember a similar scene long ago. Before all of this. But now isn't the time. The hellscape of faces in agony quivers as the two combatants prepare.

As Guts raises his sword he leaps forward at speeds only Femto can only just perceive. Femto matches his charge, speeding towards his enemy. In less than an instant the distance is gone and Guts brings down his sword in a massive slash as Femto thrusts his deadly sword at Guts' neck. There's a loud clash and Gut and Femto seemingly reappear on the other side of each other. There's a sound of something spinning through the air and the top half of Femto's sword impales itself into the eye of a nearby head. Icor sprays from the top and bottom half of Femto as his upper body falls in half. Choking on his own blood he coughs out...

"Damn you!"

Femto's voice trembles as his strength bleeds out of his body. Guts turns and charges him, Dragonslayer tight in his hand. Femto draws on the last of his power for a desperate final attack. Midswing, Femto blasts him with a wave of hell fire, stopping him cold. As the wave burns his very soul, as Femto channels the last of the energy from his fallen God Hand into him, Guts' veins burn with infernal fire breaking the berserker's rage from his mind. Screaming in agony as the helmet retreats back to Guts' cloak, reason slowly lights his eyes again. Femto chokes out a slight laugh. Guts glares at him, his anger mounting again.

"What have you done!"

Femto's laugh gurgles to a close. His incongruous smile betraying his seeming lack of concern. With a look of resignation and acceptance he spells out his revenge. .

"Fool. You think you have won? I was the last, when I die...it….falls to..."

As he dies, the brand on Guts slowly fades with him. He is FREE!. Guts feels the power Femto forced on him fill his every cell. Soon the hellscape peels away layer by layer to reveal the crumbling ruins of Falconia. Laying next to him, Femto's body slowly returned to normal as the hellscape faded.

The people looked upon Guts and the corpse of their fallen leader, the people start to gather around Guts. There's anger apparent on all of their faces. People start booing and jeering Guts, as well as throwing stones and anything else they can get their hands on. Gut's looks around, trying to find his friends. He looks behind himself and sees them walking up to him. Guts relaxes for a moment before he sees anger on their faces as well. Casca is the first to reach him and when she does, her hand flies through the air and land itself on Guts' face with a loud smack.

"What have you done! Because of your actions, these people are Homeless in a world full of monsters! You've condemned them to Death!"

Guts recoils from Casca's strike. Grief fills his face as he watches her seethe with anger. A tear runs down his face. Before he can respond, a tear opens on the world behind him and he's pulled through it by some unknown force. Casca and the crowd gasp at this event. When the tear closes back up everyone stares at where it used to be.

The smell of burning flesh filled the air. Fires rage and smokes fill the air as a war rages in a land that would be forgotten many thousands of years in the future. Thousands upon thousands of humans try to flee the chaos, while just as many pray to the goddesses for help. Around them, the demons, giants, fairies, and holy knights where fighting. The demons were slowly pushing the other clans back. On a nearby hill, a lone woman was looking over the conflict, a smile on her face. This event was perfect for her. She needed something like this to test a new spell that had been given to her by one of the goddesses. She knew the people's prayers were useless. The goddess had made sure that the lone figure would have the perfect chance to use the spell given to her. The figure began to build up her power in preparation for the spell. Only a few of those fighting below could see what she was doing, but by the time they knew about it, it was far too late. Large fires spread once the spell is cast, traveling across the crowds. If any of them could see the fire from an elevated plane, like the lone woman could, they would see it form a pattern that looks like two diamonds, one on top of the other, with a line through them and the diamond on top isn't connected. Once the fire is completed a purple goo creature manifests in the crowd. For every person it absorbs it only grow larger and more powerful. Only a few people are even able to last for a short while against the goo. But even them succumb to the creature after a while. The lone woman smiles and walks away. What she doesn't know is that once every creature has been absorbed it condenses itself into the shape of a chest sized egg with various facial features randomly placed on it.

3000 years later, a village was built on the grounds where the catastrophe took place. The event had long since been forgotten by almost everyone except for a select few who were very well learned historians. The village was a very small place, without a lot of people. Very few of the people had any scholarly knowledge. There were a couple of people with military knowledge, but the rest of the people were just farmers, blacksmiths, a medic, etc. One day, a small scout group from a band of thieves came to the village. They demanded that the village surrender all of their money and valuables. The thieves gave the village one week to collect all of their valuables and money so that when the thieves come in a week they'll be able to collect them easily. That night, many of the people wept. They knew they couldn't fight the thieves. They knew they'd be killed. They sent out someone on a horse to try to get the holy knights. However they didn't know that their need for a savior would awaken a great power. That night everyone had a dream of a black wolf, tearing through everything in it path.

It's early morning, the day after the people had the strange dream. There's a thudding sound coming from outside the village. It starts slowly coming towards the village. The doctor of the village is awoken by the sound. He puts on his coat and goes the see what it is. What he finds is a large man slowly walking towards the village. The man is covered from head to two in black armor and a large black cape. There's also what looks like a sword hilt coming off of his back. The doctor could see that the man's face is covered in cuts. The doctor runs over to the man.

"Sir! Are you okay?!"

The man looks at the doctor with a single eye. His right eye was closed while his left was open. He looks at the doctor with a blank eye, like he isn't all there. The man smiles and then passes out. He falls to the ground with a loud thud. The doctor started to panic. He grabs the man by the shoulders and starts to pull. But the man is to heavy and the doctor lets go. He starts running back to the village. He gets a few people together and they help him get the man to their very simple clinic. Once he's there they take off his armor and they also see that he was carrying a giant sword. A couple of them gasp. When they take his armor off they see that his entire body is covered in deep wounds that are bleeding very badly. They set aside his equipment and quickly take him to, what constitutes, an emergency room. The doctor quickly works to sew up all of the wounds. After a couple hours the doctor has managed to close all the the strange man wounds. He exits the room and takes a deep breath to calm himself. One of the villagers walks up to him.

"Is that man going to be alright."

The doctor looks to the room and then back to the villager.

"He was very lucky. I'm surprised he was even able to walk with all those wounds. By all rights he should be dead. But I was able to close the wounds and he should pull through."

The two of them head back to the entrance of the clinic. They look over his equipment. When they get close to his armor, they can feel powerful negative magic emanating from it. The villager turn to the doctor with worry in his face.

"Whoever this person is, they must be very dangerous. I feel like I've seen him before. Like I've seen him in a dream."

The doctor looks over the metal arm the man had, looking for how it functions.

"I had that feeling as well. Perhaps this is a sign."

After the two had looked over the rest of the man's equipment the doctor decides to stay with the strange man. He ask the other villager to go get the sheriff so that when the man wakes he'll be able to get answers to who this person might be. Once the sheriff arrives the doctor takes him over to the sideroom where he's keeping the strange man's equipment. The doctor grabs the mechanical arm first.

"This is some kind of mechanical arm. It's make is very advanced. We're not sure who could have made it. However it's made, the maker is a genius. Not only does it look like it would function as a proper replacement for a lost limb, it also has a magnet in the palm that would also it to tightly grip a metal object."

The doctor passes the metal arm to the sheriff, who turns it around in his hand.

"How did you find this out so quickly?"

The doctor blushes and rubs the back of his hand.

"I was taking a sticking needle to the patient's room and it flew over to the metal arm when I got close."

The sheriff sighs and accidentally pulls down on the hand, revealing a hole in the arm.

"What the hell is this?"

The sheriff raises the arm to look inside, whereupon a cannon ball roll out of the arm and almost crushes the sheriff's right foot. Instead he pulls his foot away and it dents the floor instead.

"There's a cannon in this man's false arm?! What kind of a monster could withstand firing a cannon from their arm?"

The doctor struggles to moves the cannon ball over to the rest of the man's equipment.

"Whoever this man is, He may have the power of a holy knight."

The doctor returns to the sheriff with a small repeating crossbow.

"This was found with the rest of his equipment. I believe it may attach to the man's false arm."

The sheriff puts the mechanical arm down. He walks over to the equipment and before he can pick up something else he feels and sees the armor. It's just sitting there.

"Doctor, was the man found wearing this armor?"

The doctor start sweating in the presence on the armor.

"Yes, he was. So far I haven't tried to mess with it."

The sheriff turns away from the armor and look through the rest of the equipment.

"That's probably for the best."

The sheriff passes over the throwing knives to look at some strange spiked balls with fuses in them.

"Doctor, what are these?"

The sheriff hands one over to the doctor. The doctor looks at the fuse and the ball itself.

"I'm not sure. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it. I don't think we should try to figure it out though, given the rest of this man's armaments."

Ther sheriff nods and finally turns to see the pies de resistance, a giant black sword.

"What a mighty weapon. I've never seen anything like it before. To think a man could wield such a device. It's massive."

The doctor runs his hand over it.

"It's also thick, heavy, and rough. I'd hardly call it a sword. It seems more like a heap of raw iron."

The sheriff and the doctor move back to the main room.

"This man needs to have an eye kept on him at all time until he wakes up. I don't want to know what he might do if he wakes up to find that his stuff is missing. Until he wakes up I also don't want anyone coming in unless they need help."

The doctor nods and the sheriff leaves. The doctor goes back to the room where the strange man is resting. While it's true that the man's wound where deep and many, he seemed to at least be resting well.

Gut's was trapped. He couldn't find his way. All he could see was darkness. Suddenly there's a light. Guts runs towards the light. When he reaches the light he finds Casca standing alone in a white void. Guts runs over to her.

"Casca, what's going on?!"

When Casca turns around it's revealed that she has Griffith's face.

"This is your punishment."

Gut's jumps back. He draws Dragonslayer and rushes Griffsca.

"GRIFFITH!"

As he swings his sword, a black light follows in its path and carves through Griffsca. The darkness travels alone Griffsca's body, consuming it. Once again Guts is in a black void, but this time, standing in front of him is the Beast of Darkness.

" _Well look at you. It's nice to see you again._ "

Guts swings Dragonslayer at the beast.

"Leave me!"

The sword has no effect on the demon. The beast merely laughs at Guts.

" _Don't blame me. You're the reason they all hate you. You took away their little fantasy._ "

Guts' mind fills with rage.

"I said leave!"

There's a sudden flash of light and Guts feels a great weight on his eyes. He opens them to see a strange man looking over him.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Guts suddenly sits up, he's breathing heavily and his body drenched in sweat. His sudden movement surprises the doctor who jumps back so that he isn't in reach of Guts. Guts slows his breathing and looks around the small hospital room. He's sitting on a bed that's just a bit too small for him with brown covers concealing his legs. The right side of the bed is against a wall with a window on it. Through the window Guts can see the rest of the village. Next to the head of the bed is a small table with a small towel and a small bowl of water. On the other side of the wall with the window is a wooden door. The walls appear to be made of a soft stone. Guts turns to the doctor who's standing in the corner. The doctor is a caucasian male who's wearing a brown coat, shirt, and pants. His brown messy hair has almost visibly turned several shades lighter from fright. Guts coughs and reaches over to the bowl of water with his good hand. He grabs the bowl and drinks the water to soothe his throat. As he drinks, the doctor calms his nerves and walks closer to Guts. Guts sets the bowl down once he's finished and is able to speak again.

"Where am I?"

The doctor answers with a shaky voice as he steps a little closer to Guts

"You're in the village of Harmony."

Guts had never heard of the village and was confused by this person statement.

"Is this place in midland."

The doctor turns his head at Guts' question. He scratches his head in thought.

"I'm sorry but I've never heard of midland. You must not be from around these parts. You're in the kingdom of Britannia."

Guts' eye widens in shock. He quickly throws his covers off and stand up. The doctor stands in his way and urgently tries to motion him back to the bed.

"Woah there. You're in no condition to be up and about. You need to stay in bed."

Guts pushes the doctor aside and starts walking to the door.

"I'll manage."

The doctor reaches out to grab Guts' right hand.

"Now Hold on there-"

Guts reacts immediately by slapping the doctor's hand away. The doctor recoils a bit as Guts glares at him with hatred evident in his eyes.

"Don't touch me!"

Guts opens the door and walks out into the hallway, leaving the doctor in the room behind him. To gut's right the hallway ends in a dead end. To the left Guts can see a second door and a main room with a desk. Guts walks over to the second door and opens it, looking for his gear. Inside he finds another set up like the room he woke up in. The room however was empty so Guts walks into the main room. This room is a bit larger than the two he has already seen, but not by much. There's a door to on the left side of the room, the front of the room, the back of the room, and a staircase on the right side of the room. Guts goes to the door at the back of the room, behind the counter. When he opens the door he finds a bunch of medical equipment. He then goes to the stairs. Up the stairs is another door. Guts sighs and starts walking up the stairs. The doctor runs in (after having cleaned up Guts' room).

"Hey, don't go up there!"

Guts ignores him and opens the door. Inside is a larger bed with blue covers at the back of the room. To the right is a dresser with a picture over it and on the left is a small bookshelf. Obviously this is the doctor's bedroom. The doctor runs in front of Guts and slams the door.

"Listen, please don't go snooping in my home. Listen, your stuff is in the closet..."

The doctor points at the door on the left of the room. Guts walks down the stairs and the doctor sighs in relief.

"...but you're in no condition to be out and about. Especially if you're hauling around all of that gear. At the very least stay until your wounds heal. It should take about a week and by then we'll be able to arrange for someone to take you to one of the large cities. There you'll be able to see if anyone knows about this Midland place you were talking about."

Guts looks at his wounds. Several of them were deep enough that they barely able to be held together with the stitches the doctor applied. Femto had really done a number on his body. Guts nods and heads back to the room he woke up in. The doctor heads out to get the sheriff while Guts lays back on his bed.

A few minutes later the door to Guts' room opens and in walks someone who's not the doctor. He's wearing some light generic light armor, leather to be exact, which covers most of his body. This person was much more tanned than the doctor and her was a much more solid man in term of his attitude and demeanor. The doctor brings in a stool and sets it down for this other person to sit on. He sits on it and looks Guts right in the eyes.

"Hello there. It's nice to finally meet you. I'm the sheriff of this little village. I must say it's a pleasure to meet you when you're not bleeding to death. May I ask your name?"

Guts glares at him with annoyance before answering.

"Why do you want to know?"

The sheriff smiles and chuckles a little.

"Well aren't you the cheerful one. To be honest, it's mostly just pleasantries. However I do want you name on the record so I can keep track of what goes on here."

Guts grins in response.

"Guts. How long will I be stuck here?"

The sheriff thinks for a moment.

"The good doctor here says about a week but I don't recommend it."

The doctor looks panicked.

"Don't tell him!"

Guts glares at them.

"Tell me what?"

The sheriff dismisses the doctor.

"There's a band of bandits that're planning on raiding our village in about a weeks time. We'll help you get up onto your feet but you'd be better off leaving before the end of the week."

Guts nods and the sheriff continues.

"Now if you don't mind, I'd like to ask you a few more questions."

Guts lays down on the bed to rest.

"I actually do mind."

The sheriff stands up from his seat.

"Well, when you're feeling more talkative you can find me me at the town hall."

The sheriff walks out and Guts rolls towards the window to think.

The next day

Guts wakes up from another nightmare and gets out of bed. He walks into the main room of the clinic. He then walks out into the street to get some fresh air. He sees people getting up and going about their day. There was a very definite air of oppression hanging above everyone's heads. The entire village is only a dozen building or two. He walks down a bit and sees a small lake connected to a river just outside of town. Guts walks over to the lake and looks out over to water. The sheriff walks up behind him.

"Beautiful, isn't it? It's one of the reasons I love this place."

Guts just looks at him and then look back out at the lake. The sheriff continues.

"Listen, I don't know much fighting but I can tell your a very powerful warrior. Me and the doctor looked over your stuff and it was clear that no normal person could wield that. Not to mention the fact that the armor gave off a vibe that I don't want to think about. Now you may not be very willing since the doctor tried to get you to stay, but we need to help us."

Guts looks at the sheriff.

"What happened to 'you should get out of here before the end of the week'?"

The sheriff sighs.

"I just had a look around. We've been surrounded. We sent out a messenger so I hope he made it but as of right now we're stuck here. I figured that if you're stuck here with us you might as well help us since we're probably going to die anyway."

Guts looks back over the water.

"I don't plan on staying. If I kill a few bandits on my way out then just consider yourself lucky."

The sheriff smiles.

"At the very least it'll help."

Guts goes back to his room and doesn't come back out. The doctor opens the door and brings him some food but that's about it. Inside Guts in laying down and contemplating.

The fourth day

Guts felt well enough to go out and try to recondition his body. He gets out of bed and walks into the main room were the doctor is waiting for him.

"Hold it right there. You're still not in any condition to leave. You should be ashamed for sneaking out yesterday."

Guts just gives the doctor a deadpan stare.

"I'm fine."

The doctor shakes his head.

"Clearly you're not. It's not even time to take out the stitches yet."

Guts looks at the stitches in the wounds all over his body. There are about 7 of them in total. Guts grabs the largest one and rips it right out. The sound of tearing flesh fills the clinic and Guts throws the stitch aside. The wound bled for a moment but stopped fairly quickly. Guts repeated this process of the rest of the stitches. The wounds the stitches were sealing seemed to stay sealed. Guts left the doctor to clean up the mess as he went out to train. Guts looks around for a place to train and sees a small wooded area just outside of the village. It was inside the range of the bandits ring so he'd be okay to practice. He walks into the wooded area and starts looking for a branch that was thick enough that he could use it to train. He eventually found one on one of the taller trees. He tries to climb the tree but he falls to the ground with a massive thud. Someone walks up behind him.

"You're not gonna get anywhere with that arm of yours. Need some help?"

Guts sits up and looks behind him to see a larger man wielding a large ax, presumably a lumberjack. He's wearing a blue shirt and overalls as well as some brown boots and a large beard. Guts stands up turns turns back to the tree.

"I don't need your help."

The lumberjack just laughs.

"Word got around that the man we found in the rain hard a chip on his shoulder, but you're quite the stubborn one aren't you?"

Guts just sighs and starts climbing the tree again. He's able to get father up and grab onto the branch. However is breaks under his weight and sends him falling down with the branch grasped firmly in his hands. The lumberjack picks him up by his shoulders.

"Woah there. You've got to be more careful. That fall could have killed you."

Guts pulls away from the lumberjack.

"Don't touch me. I've survived much worse."

Guts hefts the branch in his hands. It was just a bit to light and a little rotted. He crushes it in his right hand and goes to try to find another. The lumberjack stop him though.

"Are you looking for something heavy to lift?"

Guts looks at him with annoyance.

"What's it to you?"

The lumberjack gives Guts his ax. It's certainly not as heavy as Dragonslayer but it's good enough to be a start. Guts look at the ax and then back at the lumberjack.

"Why are you giving me this to practice with?"

The lumberjack smiles.

"Because I've got nothing to lose."

The lumberjack starts walking away.

"Please return it when you're done. I'm in the house to the right of the clinic."

With that the lumberjack walks back into the village, leaving Guts to train in silence. He does so by swinging the ax up and down as if it were a sword. Guts is able to get in a few hours of training before he heads back. He leaves the ax on the lumberjack's front door and heads back to his room, eating some stew the doctor had cooked while he was away.

The fifth day

Guts wakes up to find the doctor looking over his body. Guts it surprised by the doctor and throws his covers at him. As he does Guts get up and prepares for a fight.

"What are you doing?!"

The doctor recovers and puts the covers and the foot of the bed.

"If you must know, I was observing your body. You shouldn't have survived your injuries and when you ripped off your stitches not only did the wound stop bleeding too quickly but the wounds the stitches were keeping closed didn't open. It shouldn't be possible."

The doctor walks over to him and starts looking at his wounds, looking them over with the eye of a surgeon.

"I've never seen anything like it. You appear to be regenerating at an accelerated rate. Would you mind if I procured some of your blood for study?"

Guts frowns and gives a disapproving huff at the thought, but he thinks it over.

"Fine, but if you try and pull something you're dead."

The doctor nods and walks out of the room. He returns with a knife and a small bowl. The doctor walks over to Guts and Guts prepares for the doctor to make the cut. The doctor presses the knife against Guts' left bicep but the knife doesn't cut the muscle. Guts glares at the doctor.

"What are you waiting for?"

The doctor tries harder to cut Gut's arm but the knife just won't cut through his arm.

"I don't understand. I was able to stitch you up just fine before. What could have changed to stop me from being able to cut your arm?"

Guts is starting to get annoyed with the doctor seemingly inability to properly cut him.

"Let's just get this over with."

Guts grabs the bloodletting knife and sabs it at his arm where the doctor was trying to cut. When the knife impacts into Guts' skin it shatters from the force Guts was applying to it. The doctor jumps back to avoid flying shards of metal while Guts just stares in shock. Guts mind almost immediately recalls a time long before he was sent here. When he first acquired his cursed armor. Guts sits down on his bed in contemplation. The doctor sees that Guts wants to be alone and leaves the room. When it's time for dinner the doctor brings Guts some food. Gut was still lost in his own head.

In Gut's head-

' _How is this possible? I'm a human. I can't be like that apostle._ '

the Beast of Darkness appears before Guts once again in all his animalistic glory.

' _Well isn't this quite the predicament for you. What delicious irony, isn't it?_ '

Guts looks and the Beast of Darkness with great anger.

' _Leave me be, beast!_ '

The Beast of Darkness chuckles to itself and just sits down.

' _You know I can't do that. Besides, why would I when I can watch you suffer as you figure out what's going on?_ '

Guts stands to confront the Beast of Darkness.

' _What are you talking about foul beast?!_ '

The Beast of Darkness laughs a horrible laugh that wound send chills down the spine of a lesser creature as his voice reverberated in their minds.

' _Have you not noticed yet? You've already found the first clue. The second is right in front of you._ '

Guts glares at the Beast of Darkness before making a realization.

' _You. You've never spoken like this before! TELL ME WHAT YOU KNOW!_ '

Guts charges at the Beast of Darkness only for it to disappear in a puff of darkness, but not before leaving Guts with some parting words.

' _In due time. In the meanwhile I suggest you rest up. See you in a couple days._ '

The sixth day

Guts spent the entirety of this day in his room, thinking over what had transpired last night. While he was laying in bed, the rest of the village prepared for the oncoming assault. The lumberjack starts chopping down the trees in the nearby wooded area And the some of the villagers help him move the wood back to town. Other villagers use the wood to start fortifying their village. Some are using the wood to build fortifications such as fences while others start making wooden spikes to put around the village. The sheriff on the other hand has opened the armory and brought out the swords and armor. Anyone who didn't get a weapon or armor was told to either improvise or hide with the children. The sheriff then gives everyone with a weapon impromptu combat training. Teaching them the basics of combat. The doctor prepares the clinic for the amount of people he may have to care for. As the doctor prepares the clinic he knocks on Guts' door to see if he's willing to come out yet. The door opens to reveal that Guts is still sitting by the window. The doctor walks over to Guts.

"Hey there. The bandits will be attacking here soon. Whether you leave or stay to help, you'll probably want to start preparing."

The doctor leaves the room and closes the door behind him. He then goes back to preparing the clinic. Guts gets up and walks out of his room. He sees the doctor setting everything up and walks to the closet. He opens the door and sees all of his stuff sitting in a nice, orderly fashion. Guts walks into the closets and soon comes out with all of his stuff on. He than walks outside and see what everyone's doing. Guts looks at the surrounding area and see the bandits waiting for the order attack. The sheriff walks over to Guts.

"There they are."

Guts then saw a single horse riding from the group of bandits. The sheriff's expression hardens.

"That's probably a scout to see if we've complied with their demands. I'll take care of it. You can do what you want."

The sheriff goes to meet the scout, Guts turns to leave, but stops. He turns around to follow the sheriff. The sheriff meets the scout at the edge of town.

"What do you think you're doing here?"

The scout stops his horse in front of the sheriff.

"I'm here to ensure that you complied to our demands."

The sheriff stands unflinching in the face of the scout.

"This is our village and we're not going to give up any part of it."

The scout draws a sword and points it at the sheriff.

"You're going to regret that decision."

Suddenly a bolt flies into the scout's head, killing him instantly. The sheriff turns to see Guts with his repeating crossbow equipped.

"Fuck off."

A slight burning smell emanated from the scout, but not one had any time to think about it. At seeing the death of their scout the bandits rush towards the village. Guts draws his dragon slayer and prepares for a fight.


	3. Chapter 3

Twenty five bandits on horses ride towards the village at top speed. However the villagers have had time to prepare. A small group of archers in the village raise their bows and fire at the incoming bandits. The arrows fly and two bandits are felled. The arrows fill their bodies and they fall from their horses. Five suffer from a couple injuries, arrows sticking from places they shouldn't be but they're not near anything that could kill the bandits. Before the village's archers can prepare another volley the bandits are upon the town. Guts rushes them and with a swing of his Dragonslayer he cleaves through 4 of the bandits, as well as their horses. Their bodies fly off of their legs and fall to the ground with several thuds. The life leaves their eyes a second or two after they hit the ground. The horses fall over with a loud thud. One of them crushes the upper body of one of the bandit's Guts carved in half. One of the horse heads falls towards Guts. Gut's kicks the horse head and it flies through a nearby window into someone's bedroom. The remaining 19 bandits are in shock at his feat. This gives the archers enough time to shoot off another volley of arrow. They take down 3 bandits this time, their screams muffled by the arrows in their throats. The 16 bandits steel themselves and start attacking again, making sure to try to avoid Guts. Guts fires his own mini-volley from his repeater crossbow which takes out 4 of the bandits. Their bodies convulse and they fall to the ground. Two bandits charge him from behind. Guts turns around and with a swing of his Dragonslayer he cuts the bandits in two, letting their horses carry their legs away. The villagers with melee weapons join the fray. The Sheriff leaps onto one of their horses and jabs his sword into the bandit's chest. Blood leaks from the bandit as the sheriff drops him to the ground. The Sheriff then rides towards the rest of the bandits. One of them charges at him. The Sheriff dodges the Bandit's swing and kicks the bandit off of her horse. There's a sickening crack as the bandit's head hits the ground and her neck snaps. The Sheriff then jumps off of the horse he was riding and onto another bandit's horse, knocking the bandit off. The Sheriff then stabs the bandit through her skull before moving on. The lumberjack swings his axe wide and manages to catch one of the bandit's horses in the leg. The horse falls over and crushes the bandit with a wet crunch. The lumberjack then throws his axe at another bandit. It lands squarely in the bandit's chest who's thrown off of her horse. The lumberjack grabs his axe and goes back to fighting. The 6 bandits left try something new. One of the bandits throws a javelin. The javelin hits one of the villagers in the chest and she goes down. The villagers gang up on two of the bandits and manage to pry them off of their horses. The villagers stab the bandits and then go back to fighting. Guts throws two of his knives. They imbed themselves in two of the bandits' heads and Guts finishes off the other two with another slash from Dragonslayer. Their entrails splash all over the ground as their horses run away. The Sheriff rides over to Guts.

"That was incredible. I knew you could fight but I never expected that."

Guts turns to face the spot where the bandit's leader is.

"Don't celebrate just yet. That was just the beginning."

The Bandit leader raises her sword as her voice reverberates over the landscape.

"CHARGE!"

At her word the bandits charge. There were enough of them to constitute a company of soldiers. The mighty roar of their horses rings across the land as they closed in on the tiny village. The People prepared to fight until the last man stood. Once the bandits reach the village Guts starts wading into them. Each swing of Dragonslayer taking out 2-5 bandits. Blood and viscera littered the ground around Guts as he continued his slaughter. After he's slaughtered 50 of her men single handedly the leader of the bandits decides to bring out the big guns. She reaches into a pouch and pulls out a strange looking horn. When the bandits see the horn they pull out of the village, revealing what they've done. Only a few villagers remained. The rest were either dead or dying. The Sheriff gets up, limping over to guts. The Sheriff had a nasty gash on his right leg and his left hand was missing a few fingers.

"What the hell is going on?! Why are they retreating?"

The leader blows the horn. It resonates with a sound like a glass bell. After a few second a rumbling sound starts. The ground shakes periodically, as if they were footsteps. The sheriff widens his eyes. Guts sees this and is confused.

"What's going on?"

The Sheriff turns to guts with panic in his eyes.

"They have a giant!"

Around the hill a large humanoid comes running at a breakneck speed. The giant was several stories high with blonde hair and brown eyes. It was wearing bits and pieces of armor that clattered on its body. Guts just smiles and runs towards the giant. When Guts gets close enough the giant slams his hand into the ground, creating a large crater and a massive boom. Guts jumps through the giants fingers and brings Dragonslayer up for an attack. The sheriff and the bandit leader are in shock for a moment before they start fighting each other. Guts brings Dragonslayer down on one of the giant's fingers. It manages to break the skin but it doesn't go very deep. The giant screams in pain, his voice booming loud enough to be heard miles away. The bandit leader gasps when she hears that her giant got hurt. This gives the sheriff an opportunity to sock her in the jaw. The giant lifts his hand and Guts dodges backwards. The giant then tries to kick Guts. Guts dodges to the side and slashes Dragonslayer across the giant's leg. It only just barely breaks the skin, causing the giant to scream again. The giant turns around and tries to crush Guts again by slamming her left hand down onto him. Guts jumps onto the giant's hand and starts running up his arm. He also drags Dragonslayer along the giant's arm, cutting it along the way. The giant tries to slap Guts with her right hand. Gut's jumps out of the way and lands on the giant's shoulder. The giant glares at Guts but before the giant can do anything Guts raises his left arm towards the giant's eyes. His left mechanical hand slides down to reveal a seeming hollow inside. Gut's pulls the trigger cord on his cannon arm and it fires right into the giant's eyes. However, instead of a cannon ball, a powerful beam of energy fires out of the cannon. The energy sends Guts flying off of the giant's shoulder and it cooks the giant's eyes. You could see the flesh boil and the retina burn. The giant let out a scream akin to the howls of pain of a great and terrible beast. Its face was covered in burns and its eyes were burnt to a crisp. Guts didn't notice however. He was left in shock at the beam of energy the had done this act. A look of pure terror crosses Gut's face as he comes to the realisation…

'He turned me into an apostle.'

Gut's shock gives the giant a chance to get back at the tiny knight who blinded him. The giant capitalises on this and smacks Guts right back to the village. Guts it sent flying straight into a building. He doesn't even notice as his rage starts to fill him like never before. The sheriff and the leader of the bandits see this. The sheriff breaks off and goes to Guts. The bandit leader just starts laughing.

"SEE?! You could never have opposed me!"

The sheriff looks over Guts' body. His body is covered in large gashes and bruises and his right arm was broken.

"Damit. Get up. You need to get up before the giant-"

Before the sheriff can finish his sentence the bandit leader stabs her sword through his head. She drops him to the side and knees next to Guts.

"Poor little sap. You thought you could save these people. You're just another pathetic excuse of a warrior."

Guts paid her no attention. She placed a knife against Guts' neck, about to finish him off. She didn't see until it was too late the black helmet emerging from Guts' black cape. Suddenly the black helm slams down onto the rest of the armor, biting the leader's arm off. She jumps back and grunts in pain. Guts stands up. The eyes on his armor glow a deep and angry red. There's a tearing sound as Gut's arm spins around and find itself back in its proper position. The bandit lead stare in shock as she witnesses this man's armor putting him back together. She starts running. She get on her horse and rides out of the town.

"EVERYONE, ATTACK THE BLACK SWORDSMAN!"

The bandits charge the town. Once Guts sees the advancing army he charges forward. When he's close he points forward his cannon arm and fires again. The resulting beam of energy disintegrates a large column of the bandit's forces. The giant comes and tries to stomp on what he think is where he heard the tiny knight's cannon come from. The giant's right foot connects with Guts but he just catches it on his back. He throws the foot and the giant trips and falls over. Before the giant can get up Guts runs over to it neck. He jumps inhumanly high into the air and as he comes down he brings Dragonslayer down onto the giant's neck, decapitating the monstrous creature. The head rolls away as gallons upon gallons of blood spill from the giant's neck. The bandit forces stop in shock. Guts however doesn't. He charges at the bandits, laying waste to their forces, blood and gore spilling everywhere, as Guts wades his way to the leader of these insects. Guts spots her trying to run, but before she can escape Guts jumps in front of her horse. The horse drops the leader of the bandits and the Guts cleaves the horse in half with a lazy swing of Dragonslayer. The bandit leader starts backing up.

"D-don't kill me. I'll give you whatever you want!"

Guts doesn't pay any heed to the girl's pleads. He takes his sword and swings it down, flat side forward. This impact crushes her, sending her blood and entrail flying and creating a vaguely human shaped crater filled with unidentifiable meat. The rest of the bandits turn to leave but it's already too late for them. Gut's rushes into their ranks and start swinging Dragonslayer wildly, scattering blood and body parts everywhere.

Hidden in the church, the sick, crippled, and the young were waiting for whatever may come to them. Eventually the noise outside stops. One of them looks outside and turns to the rest…

"That dude they found is okay. He's covered in blood though."

One of the children opens the door and runs over to Guts. His black armor is painted red from the shear amount of blood it's been bathed in from the massacre. Entrails dangled from various parts of Guts' armor. The helm of the armor looks down at the child.

"Mister, are you alright? You look like you could use some help."

Guts grabs the kid by his head and squeezes until the child's head cracks like and egg. The armor then grabs one of his grenades and throws it into the church. It goes off and the entire structure collapses onto everyone who didn't die from the explosion. The church then caught fire. The smell of burning flesh could be smelled from miles around.


	4. Chapter 4

The king and his men rode along at a fast pace, trying to get to the village that was under attack as soon as possible. A young man had rode from a remote village and told the guard in another village nearby that his village was under attack by a huge number of bandits. When the villager described the bandits it was discovered that this group of bandits was one that had been the cause of a lot of trouble, even for the crown. Eventually the news made it all the way to king and he gathered together a large number of troops to attack the bandits while he still new where they were. Before they headed out the king came across Merlin.

"Hey there your majesty. What's with all the commotion?"

The king turns to find her behind him.

"Ah Merlin. We may be able to take out a large group of bandits that's been giving us some trouble. They're attacking a village in Double Diamond valley."

Merlin's eyes widen just a bit before going back to normal.

"Oh, you don't say. Tell you what, we'll help you."

The king's eyes widen this time.

"Really? That's great news! We'll finally be done with the nuisance."

The king runs off to set everything up for their departure. Meliodas walks up behind Merlin.

"What's so important in that valley that you would offer our help without consulting me. It just sounds like a large group of bandits."

Merlins smiles and starts to follow the king.

"Call it a hunch. I've got something I need to clean up."

It had taken a couple days of pushing the men and their horses but they had managed to make it to the valley. The king order them to set up camp and everyone pitched in to set up. Once the camp was set up the king sent a scout to see what's going on. Soon the scout returned. He walks into the king's tent and stands at attention. In the tent is the king, Meliodas, and Merlin.

"Scout reporting sire."

The king looks up from his conversation to address the scout.

"Ah, good. At ease. Tell me what you found."

The scout goes to parade rest.

"The village has been destroyed and almost all of the bandits are gone. In addition, the corpse of a giant lays decapitated on the battlefield."

The king grumbles.

"Damn it, they've escaped again. At least we can arrest the remaining few."

The scout shakes his head.

"Sire, there's also a strange warrior there. When I saw him he was attempting to follow the remaining bandits. He wore black armor and wielded a massive black sword."

The king looks at the scout in confusion.

"A strange warrior? Who else could be out here?"

Meliodas walks over and pats the king on the back. He speaks with a mild smile and cheerful tone.

"Don't worry about it. We'll look it over and handle it if we have to."

The king breathes a sigh of relief.

"I'm glad to know that it'll be taken care of. Scout, you're dismissed."

The scout nods and walks out of the tent. Meliodas and Merlin gather the rest of the sins and ride out to the village. They arrive and look out at the carnage from a hilltop that reminds Merlin of something. Down in the village they see the burnt down building and the corpse of the giant. They also see the remaining bandits fleeing from the village. Out of nowhere, the warrior the scout described suddenly appears and cleaves through two of the remaining bandits. The few remaining try to run but the warrior runs over to them and cleaves through each of them, sending viscera and gore all around the battlefield. Ban is the first to speak with a impressed tone and a whistle, along with his characteristic smirk.

"That's pretty impressive for someone we've never met."

Meliodas just stares with a slightly impressed look and his usual way of speaking.

"Definitely impressive, but a bit awkward. Like he doesn't know his own strength."

Diane and king just stare at the spectacle in disgust. Especially Diane.

"How could he take out a giant?"

King hugs close to her.

"I have no idea."

As Gother watches they are calculating the odd of victory.

"I estimate our chances of victory if we all go at once at 87%."

Merlin just watches with a severe sense of deja vu. Ban gets off of his horse and starts walking into the battlefield.

"Don't worry about it. I got this."

Gother turns to Ban.

"That would be inadvisable. Your chances of victory on your own..."

Ban charges towards the warrior. The warrior turns to see him coming and charges at him. Before Ban can get in a single hit he's cleaved in half horizontally by the warrior's sword.

"...are 1%."

Before the warrior can charge at the rest of the sins, Ban grabs the warrior's ankle.

"You could have mentioned that before."

Ban's upper half throws the warrior into the demolished remains of the village. He then regenerates the lower half and runs back to the rest of the sins.

"Alright, he's tougher than I gave him credit for."

Escornor just gives a bit of a chuckle.

"This joke of a man in but an annoyance."

Just as Ban is about to get back on his horse, several throwing knives fly from the village remain and through Ban in several vital area. One of those was his spine, so he falls to the ground.

"Well isn't today just the best day ever."

King looks over at the village to see the warrior charging at them at a disturbingly fast pace. King sends out a strange looking spear to meet the warrior half way.

"Chastiefol, form five."

Suddenly the spear turns into a massive number of small knives the fly towards the warrior at great speed. The warrior swats the knives aside using the flat of his sword is a manner that ussetles the king of fairies for some reason he can't quite place. As the small knives swarm around the unknown warrior, some of them end up cutting him through his armor. King sees this and smirks.

"All too easy."

Gother keeps observing the warrior with the other sins except for Meliodas and Merlin. It takes a moment, but king and Gother both notices that even though the wounds keep accumulating, the warrior continues to fight as if they weren't there at all. Gother adjusts his glasses.

"Correction: the chances of our victory if we were to all attack him at once are 63%"

There's a loud clang as suddenly the warrior swings his sword and uses pure air pressure to blow away the Chastiefol swarm. King's eyes widen and he recalls his spear.

"How is this possible?!"

Meliodas gives a small nod before responding.

"He's strong. I think I'll play a bit. This out to be fun."

Meliodas jumps towards the strange warrior and draws his sword. He lands on the ground a little bit away from the warrior. Gother keeps observing the warrior.

"That might not be advisable."

Meliodas turns to look at Gother as the warrior starts running at him.

"Why not?"

Suddenly, Meliodas feels a pressure on his spirit. His eyes widen as suddenly he can feel a strange aura. Whoever this warrior is, he's some kind of high ranking holy weapon that was meant for killing demons. On top of that, the warrior exudes a strange kind of energy, as if he were a demon himself. The warrior brings his massive sword down towards Meliodas. Meliodas snaps out of it and blocks the attack. Meliodas smirks when he activates Full Counter, but something strange happens. The magic shoots at the warrior but the warrior cuts straight through the magic. The sword of his would be trouble if it actually hit him.

"Gother, some help here?"

Gother nods and positions his hands as if he was holding a bow and arrow. A bow of energy forms in his hands and an arrow of light forms as well. The arrow flies from Gother's energy bow and lands squarely in the warrior's head. The Warrior stagers for a moment before falling to the ground right in front of Meliodas. Meliodas watches as the warrior's armor peels its helmet back to reveal what look like a human with rough black hair and a single closed eye. He suddenly starts bleeding as the armor deactivates. Merlin teleports over to the warrior. She looks him over, feeling a familiar energy.

"Captain, would it be alright if I took him with me and healed him up? I think I've met this warrior before."

Meliodas shrugs his shoulders as he puts his sword back in its sheath.

"Sure, so long as you can keep him from going on another rampage."

Merlin nods and teleports away with the mysterious warrior. Diane picks up Ban and carries him back to the camp as he heals.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

A loud gasp escapes Gut's mouth as he awakens with a start. He jumps up to his feet and looks around, trying to figure out where the hell he is. Adrenaline pumps through Gut's viens Gut's breathes heavily as he looks around the area he finds himself in. Everything that happened before hand lays in Guts' mind, kind of fuzzy and hard to recall. He appears to be inside of some kind of small tent. It looks like it was pitched in a hurry. Guts looks himself over and finds that all of his equipment is growls to himself as he searches the tent for his stuff. He then finally notices that he's untied.

'Why'd they leave me untied? Whoever captured me is either very cocky, or something else is going on here.'

Guts starts slowly and carefully walking towards his equipment. Each step Guts makes towards his equipment is taken with the utmost caution. Guts also keeps his right arm out in front of him as he walks just in case. Not even a second after Guts started walking, his hand impacts into something smooth. A wave of purple energy emanates from the point where Guts' hand impacted with the previously invisible wall. Guts takes a step back and watches as the energy turns in the middle of the air at certain points. The end result of the traveling energy is a semi transparent rectangular prism made out of the same purple energy. Guts looks all around him and it's apparent that this strange box is what's keeping him trapped with whomever captured him. He has enough room in the cube to walk a couple feet in any direction from the center, but that's about it.

'So this is how they plan to keep me captured. Well, here goes nothing.'

Guts rears back his right hand and grips it into a fist as he punches the purple wall of the strange box. A wave of energy ripples along the walls of the box when Gut's fist impacts with the wall. There's a slight cracking sound as the bones in Guts' fist strain against the strange wall. Guts pulls his fist back and sees that nothing has changed about the wall. Guts starts laying into the wall with his right fist and bruises begin to appear on his hand. However no matter how hard he punches them, the walls aren't even scratched. Guts is about to continue wailing on the wall when a voice comes from behind him.

"You might as well stop. You can't breach the Perfect Cube."

Guts turns around to look at who's talking to him. Out of the shadows walks a tall girl wearing a strange blue coat that only covers her arms and half of each breast, leggings that go up to half of her thighs, and what Guts can only conclude is her underwear. What else could be so thin? She has shoulder length straight dark hair and golden eyes. However what worries Guts is that he's fairly sure that he looks over the area of the tent that she came from. Once Guts sees the one who appears to be his captor, he wastes no time in getting to the point.

"Who are you and why am I in this 'perfect cube'?"

The girl pauses for a moment, as if unsure how to answer Guts. However soon enough she's able to find the words that she's looking for.

"My name is Merlin. You're in my perfect cube because your murdered an entire group of bandits, their giant, and the town that they were attacking."

Guts' breath catches in his throat when he hears Merlin's answers to his questions. Guts falls to his knees as everything leading up to the berserker armor taking over returns to Guts' mind, crystal clear. Guts remember the beam of energy that shot from his arm cannon, and the conversation he had with his inner beast. Guts can't suppress the look of terror that overcomes his face as he tries to process everything that's been happening. Guts raises his right hand up so that he can look at it. Right before his eyes, the damage that punching the wall of the Perfect Cube did to his hand begins to heal itself. The bruises disappear, the pain slowly fades away, and his bones fix any fractures that might have shown up because of the pressure on his fingers. Merlin sees Guts' reaction to the news and is actually rather confused as to why he's action like this.

"I can see that you've got a lot going through your head right now. I'll give you a moment before I return with the captain for questioning."

Merlin disappears right in front of Guts' eyes and Guts is left to stew in his own thoughts for the time being. Guts rests his back against the wall of the Perfect Cube and starts trying to figure out what's going on. But as he goes through the evidence in his head, he can only come to the same conclusion over and over again.

'When I killed him, Griffuth somehow turned me into an apostle.'

Guts feels something run down his cheek and soon he realizes that he's crying. And as much as he would want to, Guts can't seem to stop himself. The creatures he fought his entire life, now counted him among their ranks. Something like that could take years to work through. However Guts doesn't have the courtesy of such time as about a minute later, Merlin teleports back into Gut's tent with five other people. One looked like a child with blond hair and green eyes. He's wearing full plate armor with a strange three pronged symbol on the belt and knee caps, and he carries himself like he hasn't a care in the world. One is a massive behemoth of a man standing above the rest of them in purple full plate with an X shaped visor who's completely unreadable. One of them is a lanky man with red eyes, silver spiky hair, a devilish grin on his face, and more standard looking plate armor. One is a rather portly looking man with a scraggly brown beard and a mop of brown hair wearing plate for someone just as fat as he is. His glare tells Guts everything he needs to know about him. And the last person is another massive behemoth of a man. He doesn't stand as tall as the one in the purple plate armor, but he's still massive. He's got green eyes and short straight golden hair. His eyes betray his feelings of superiority over Guts. The lanky man walks closer to the cube and looks Guts over. He looks a bit surprised and He starts looking at Guts with an even more critical eye.

"Hey, didn't you have two arms when we fought you?"

Merlin points him over to the pile of Guts' equipment and he walks over to it. After searching for a moment he pulls out Guts' prosthetic arm. He turns it around over and over in his hands, giving it a look like a predator gawking at his latest kill. As he messes with the prosthetic arm he eventually finds out how to open the cannon.

"Well isn't this an impressive piece of, whatever it is. You've got a cannon in here and a mount for some kind of a weapon on top. And it also works as a replacement arm. What's a desperado like you doing with something this nice?"

Guts doesn't answer him, instead choosing to glare at the man currently feeling up his prosthetic arm. Ban laughs and tosses the arm back into the pile of Guts' equipment. He then walks back over to the cube.

"I suppose you don't have to answer me right now. Soon we'll figure out about all of your stuff. Especially that creepy armor and that heap of raw iron you call a sword. That gave us some trouble when we tried to move you here."

The man walks over to his friends and his grin returns to its normal levels before he turns back around to face Guts again.

"Though, I suppose it might not matter in the end. Killing an entire village is a serious crime."

Guts can't help but wince at that last comment. His glare moves from the man mocking him to the ground as his mind goes back to the reason that he's in this mess in the first place. The man laughs for a second before the young boy holds up a hand and the man stops. He looks over to the boy a bit confused, but he shrugs his shoulders and just goes back to staring at Guts. The young boy then puts his hand down and walks over to the cube and sits down on the ground in front of Guts. He gives Guts a wide smile and chuckles a little.

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Meliodas. What's your name?"

Guts looks up at Meliodas and he feels a strange sensation. Almost like a feeling of kinship with this Meliodas. The feeling almost feels similar to the burning of his curse mark, but this doesn't hurt like that did. This feels more like a pleasant warmth than a painful burning. Meliodas seems to have felt it as well, because his grin fades into a face hardened by strife and determination. Guts can feel a great amount of anger radiating off of him and his immediately puts his guard up. The tension hangs in the air for a good minute before Guts finally answers Meliodas' question.

"Guts."

Guts looks behind Meliodas to see that his team mates all have worried looks on their faces except for the two behemoths, one for obvious reasons and the other not so. Guts then looks back to Meliodas whose face has relaxed a little bit. Meliodas Stands up and turns to face the rest of his teammates.

"Everyone except for Merlin needs to leave."

They all look confused for a second but eventually they all leave except for Meliodas and Merlin. Meliodas and Merlin both Walk over to the Perfect Cube and look in at Guts. Guts uses his right hand to prop himself up so that he's no longer sitting on the ground. Meliodas crosses his arms as he glares up and Guts.

"I'll make this short and simple: you're a demon, aren't you."

It was less of a question and more of a definite statement. aGuts finds himself unable the meet Meliodas' eyes and his right fist clenches so hard that blood starts to leak from it. Guts starts shaking and tears start to fall once again and he can't stop himself from feeling all of this hatred and sadness.

"I'm an apostle."

Merlin and Meliodas see Guts reaction to the question and are very confused. If he is a demon like Meliodas sensed, then why is he crying like that? And why is he weilding a weapon that appears to have been made to kill demons? Meliodas thinks this over for a second before continuing.

"What does that mean? And what were you doing in that village?"

Once his emotions have run their course a little bit, Guts is able to reign in his tears and stop himself from shaking. He sighs as he sits back down, but still can't bring himself to look Meliodas in the eyes.

"Apostles used to be humans, but they sacrificed their humanity to gain power. They're disgusting creatures that I've strived to destroy all my life, and yet here I stand. As for your second question, I don't know. I just woke up there."

As Meliodas listens to what Guts is saying, the pieces of the puzzle are starting to fall into place. There are still a few bits of key information still missing, but the picture is starting to get clearer and clearer. Merlin suddenly gasps and both Meliodas and Guts turn to look at her.

"Now I remember where I've felt your energy before. Back during the war against the demon race, I used a spell that created a massive goo monster that swallowed everything of that battlefield. Once it was finished, I felt a strange energy left over, but it was very faint. I guess that you were the result of that experiment."

Guts' eyes widen in shock as he listens to her recall that night as if it were nothing. Guts jumps to his feet and presses himself into the walls of the perfect cube. Merlin and Meliodas have a front row seat to a look filled with so much anger that it even make Meliodas flinch. Guts tarts growling at Merlin from behind the wall of the cube.

"What?! What kind of monster are you?! Who in their right mind would try to summon a member of the god hand?!"

This intrigues Meliodas and Merlin. Learning that the spell she used was meant to summon an unknown force called that God Hand was a very interesting prospect, but a bit unfeasible at the moment. Guts looks like he's about to burst a vein and Meliodas tries to think of something to diffuse the situation.

"Who are the God Hand?"

Guts keeps snarling for a moment, but he manages to pull himself off of the wall so that he can look at Meliodas. Just remembering the God Hand makes Guts' blood boil. Everything they put him through. Everything he did to try and stop them.

"They called themselves Angels of God, but they died just like all the others. It was them who made me like this. They were one of the most powerful creatures I ever killed, but each one died by my hand."

Meliodas nods along while Merlin looks a bit disappointed. This means that the spell that she used wouldn't be able to be used again since its subject no longer exists. Guts calms himself down more and is able to steady his breathing. He finally works up the courage to look Meliodas in the eyes, and Meliodas sees a great deal of suffering hiding just behind Guts' eyes.

"You, Meliodas. You seem pretty knowledgeable about this. You must be a demon. That explains why I have this strange feeling in my chest."

Meliodas and Merlin flinch when Guts calls meliodas out for being a demon. To think that he could have figured it out on his own would be one thing, but if what he says is true, then he has some kind of magical connection to other demons. There's no telling what that could lead to. However, Meliodas has to try and deal with this now.

"That's right. What about it?"

Guts' look of sorrow moves seamlessly into a glare of infinite anger. Guts balls up his right hand into a fist again and swings it at the wall of the Perfect Cube. There's a crack as Guts' hand breaks on impact, but to everyone's surprise, the wall of the Perfect Cube has also cracked.

"I'm new to these strange feelings, so I don't know if it's just you, or if your whole team are demons. However, I will kill you. I won't let any other apostles kill any humans. As much as I despise my own existence, I can't stop until all apostles are dead."

Guts pulls his hand back and it's a bloodied mess. His bones are jutting out of his fingers and all his fingers are bent at unnatural angles. Blood flows freely from the gory mess that used to be his fingers, however his hand quickly starts to repair itself. The bones slide back into place and the wounds start to seal themselves. Merlin sees this and casts a spell that repairs the perfect cube. Guts grunts and waits for his hand to heal up again. Meliodas sighs and shakes his head.

"I don't know what you've been through, but I'm on your side. I defend the people of Britannia."

Guts hears Meliodas response to his declaration and he just glares at him. Soon Guts' hand is completely healed. Guts isn't sure if he believes him, but everyone else around Meliodas seems to believe him, so how that plays out, only time will tell. In the meantime however it seems like Guts is their prisoner and based on what he's been told, he'll probably be put on trial for the murder of those villagers. Guts sits back down on the ground and continues where he left off on his contemplation. Meliodas sees that and motions for Merlin to follow him. She nods and they both walk out of the tent, leaving Guts to stew in the raging torrent of events and emotions raging through his mind.

After his encounter with Meliodas and Merlin, Guts was actually able to get a moment alone to think about everything that's happened. Over the next couple hours Guts is able is contemplate his new status as an apostle and what that means for him. He dedicated his whole life to killing apostles and now he has to try and figure out what to do now. The only demon he's met so far claims to be an opponent of evil, but Guts has no way of knowing if what he says is true. Over the next few hours Guts contemplates these questions and more, occasionally hearing commotion outside but paying it no mind. His train of thought is interrupted however when the lanky man enters his tent again. He stands over Guts with a more neutral expression on his face.

"I came here to tell you that we're going to be moving out soon, so be prepared for that I guess."

The man turns to leave and is about to start walking when he stops in his tracks and turns to look at Gut's equipment. He hums to himself and starts walking over to Guts' stuff. Off all of his stuff, the lanky man saunters over to Guts' Dragon Slayer. He starts looking it over with a keen eye.

"You know, that's actually a pretty good sword that you've got there. With all of the magic power coming off of this thing, it's got to be some kind of sacred treasure, right? I wonder who you stole this from."

Guts watches as the man starts ogling his sword, but he just stays silent. However when the man starts talking about Dragon Slayer, and saying that Guts stole it, Guts glares at him. The man squats down next to Dragon Slayer on the ground.

"You know, Escanor said that this sword was kind of heavy. I wonder how heavy it is."

The man grabs the handle and tries to lift it up. However Dragon Slayer doesn't even lift an inch from its spot on the ground. The man grunts as he keeps trying to lift the sword, but continues to fail at it. The man starts trying to deadlift the sword. His body trembles as his muscle keep exerting themselves, but the sword only raises a millimeter. Eventually the man's body gives up on the endeavor. When the sword drops down that millimeter, there's an enormous boom and a massive cloud of dust covers the camp. Every looks at Gut's tent to try and figure out what happened. Meliodas and Merlin teleport to the tent, hoping that Guts hadn't managed to escape from the Perfect cube somehow. Merlin casts a wind spell to clear away the dust. What they see shocks them. Where Guts' tent used to be is an enormous crater. The tent has been Blown away and Guts is still in the Perfect Cube, which is hovering above the crater. Gut's stuff is at the bottom of the crater, with Dragon Slayer at the bottom. Even Guts is surprised by this turn of events. He knew that Dragon Slayer was heavy, but it was never that heavy. Everyone hears a loud groan and they all turn to face it. Impaled onto one of the tent spikes on the other side of the camp is the lanky man. His body is bending all the wrong way, as if her were smacked by a giant's hammer. Guts is too focused on the devastation his sword caused to notice the lanky man pull himself off of the tent spike and fall to the ground. His body starts fixing itself and he walks over to Meliodas.

"Escanor wasn't kidding. Whatever that sword's made of, almost no one I know could ever hope to lift it."

Meliodas nods as the man describes the sword and he turns to face the crater again. To think a sword being dropped could cause such devastation. This Guts must be one tough customer. The ground starts to thud and Guts looks around to see what's making the noise. He eventually sees a giant woman running towards the campsite with an enormous hammer in hand. She has long brown hair in two pigtails and purple eyes. She stops when she reaches the campsite and she looks around.

"Captain, what happened?!"

Eventually the rest of the team arrives and then Meliodas tells them what the lanky man told him. Some of them have varying stages of shock on their faces, While others are still unreadable. The lanky man walks over to the one that's presumably Escanor, the tall muscular blonde, and looks up at his face.

"Yo, I get that you're strong, but how did you lift that sword? It might even be heavier than your ax."

Escanor stares down at the lanky man as he talks and then starts laughing. It's a very condescending laugh and the lanky man frowns. Eventually Escanor Stops laughing and looks over at the crater created by dropping Dragon Slayer.

"I admit, it was a bit heavy, but it was still a trivial matter for one such as myself."

Ban sighs, knowing that that's probably the most that he'll get out of Escanor. Escanor walks into the crater and he grabs Dragon Slayer's handle. He hefts the sword onto his shoulder starts starts climbing out the crater. He makes it out of the crater and gently sets the sword on the ground so that he won't make an even bigger crater. Meliodas looks the sword over, his interest in the sword peaked even further.

After the fiasco with Dragon Slayer, things got back on track and the pack up went along smoothly. After half a day the entire camp was packed up and everyone was ready to go. Guts had stayed in the air the entire time, still stuck in the Perfect Cube. Once the band of king's men had started to leave, Merlin walks back over to Guts. He just stares at her while she casts another spell. The spell causes the cube to rumble a bit, and then it starts following Merlin around. Merlin then also casts a spell that teleports his equipment, somewhere. Guts can't really do anything to stop it so he just keeps sitting in the bottom of his prison. Merlin Sits down in a cart with Meliodas, the lanky man, and the fat man. The giant, the man in armor, and Escanor all have to walk. However Guts notices that the closer to night it gets, the more Escanor seems to deflate. Guts is very confused as to why this is happening. Eventually they let Escanor into the cart once he's shrunken down to the size of regular human. Night is falling and Guts is about to try and get some sleep, when the fat man bangs on the Perfect Cube. Guts glares at him and the fat man stops banging on the wall of the cube.

"Hey, why'd you kill all of those people? They were no threat to you."

Guts sighs and stop looking at the fat man. He looks up at the stars just starting to appear above him and he starts trying to figure out how to answer his question. Of all the questions he had to ask, it had to be something like that.

"I don't think any answer I give will satisfy you. But if it helps, I wasn't in control when it happened."

The fat man bangs on the wall of the Perfect Cube again. Anger paints his face and tears fall from his face. Guts looks up at him for a moment but he then looks back up at the sky. The fat man lowers his head, as if it was a personal matter to him.

"What kind of nonsense is that?! You weren't in control? That's no excuse. Those were innocent people! And yet you're acting like it doesn't even matter!"

Guts contemplates what the fat man is telling him, but he still doesn't turn to face him. With all that's happened so far, he's surprised that he's been able to stay sane long enough to listen to them deride him for his decimation of the village.

"They're dead and I can't do anything to change that. There's no sense in worrying about the past when you can't change it. Though it seems like no matter what I say, I'm not going to get through to you."

The Fat man looked like he was about to continue, but Guts suddenly jumps up and starts looking around. The strange warmth in Gut's chest was coming back with a vengeance. Guts looks around and in the distance he sees something glowing and moving towards him. The caravan sees it was well and they all stand at attention. As the last rays of sunlight disappear over the horizon, the oncoming presence makes itself known. It seems to be a group of about a dozen spirits all rushing towards the group's location. They all look like they are in various stages of decomposition. Meliodas' eyes widen as he sees the ghosts rushing towards them. Guts' eyes widen and he starts looking around for something to defend himself with before he remembers that he's trapped in the Perfect Cube. However when the ghosts reach the caravan, instead of attacking the people like Guts expected, they start clawing at the walls of his prison. They keep mumbling to themselves about "master" and the like, but Guts' can't make it out. Since their ignoring the rest of them Meliodas and his group put down their guards a bit. Meliodas then turns to Merlin.

"Do they have any chance of getting through the Perfect cube?"

Merlin can feel their clawing at the cube, but she's far too fascinated by what she's looking at. Somehow, the souls of the dead have risen just to try to get to Guts. Whatever's causing this must be studied further. But for now, she'll just have to save that for a later date.

"No, they're not going to get through."

Merlin starts building up magical energies in her hands and she fires out a blast of magic at the ghosts. The Magic burns them away and their ethereal screams echo in the minds of those present. However, it impacts Guts the most. When the ghosts are destroyed, the warmth in his chest disappears and it leaves an empty hole that feel almost like he's been stabbed. He sits back down in the Perfect Cube and wonders why he's feeling this way.

The rest of the journey is rather uneventful. Almost the whole time Guts said almost nothing. He mostly just ate and relieved himself when he needed to. The only time he spoke was when the fat man, who's name he learned was King, had started to harass him again. Guts was mostly still trying to wrap his head around his new abilities. But before he knew it, Guts was looking at one of the largest castles he's ever seen. And he knew what awaited him inside.


	6. Chapter 6

As the caravan begins to enter the city Guts can hear cheering and he wonders what's going on. He looks ahead of the cart and he sees a massive crowd gathered around the central street into the city. Hundreds of people gathered to cheer for the return of the king and his men. Guts feels a small momentary twinge of nostalgia as he remembers when he and Griffith had been celebrated like this after they ended the hundred years war. Remembering those times makes Guts' brows furrow as he also remembers what Griffith had done to Casca, him, and the rest of the Band of the Hawks. Guts tries to distract himself from those thoughts so he starts looking around at the crowd as they pass through the city. He sees that the street that they're walking along is lined with knights, presumably to keep the crowd from flooding the caravan. As he looks into the ground he feels a sharp burning. He frantically looks around for any sight of an apostle or a spirit, but his eyes eventually settle on someone in the crowd. The someone is a man with pure white hair. His green eyes widen with fear as he stares at Guts. Guts glares down at him with the anger he'd show an apostle. The man suddenly dashes away deeper into the city and the burning sensation goes away.

Nothing else really happens and the caravan is able to enter the castle without any trouble. Everyone starts to get out of their carriages and when Guts sees the king get off of his horse and start talking to someone he feels a burning sensation when he looks at who's talking with the king. That someone is a man with shoulder length grey hair who's wearing dark yellow golden plate armor. The warming sensation returns as Guts looks at who's standing next to the person the king is talking to. It's another man with brown shoulder length hair and brown stubble on his chin, he's wearing red plate armor and is standing still next to the first person. The one in red plate looks over at Guts and his pupil turn completely black for a second which causes the warming sensation to spike for that second. Then the one in red plate's eyes turn back to their regular purple and he looks away from Guts. Right after that exchange is finished Guts can feel the Perfect Cube start moving again as Merlin starts dragging him along deeper into the castle.

As Merlin takes Guts to what he can only assume is the castle's dungeons, he wonders why he's been feeling a reaction from his demon sense or whatever it is ever since he got to the city. He's never had this kind of a consistent reaction from it before. Not to mention when he saw that man with the white hair in the crowd it hurt just like it used to. Something strange is going on. Guts is snapped out of his thoughts when the Perfect Cube disappears and he suddenly lands on the ground with a thud. He looks around to see that he's been placed inside of a rather standard looking cell. Merlin closes and locks the cell door behind him.

"Alright. You'll have to wait patiently until your trial starts."

Merlin teleports away, leaving Guts alone again.

The dungeon is surprisingly quiet for what appears to be a major city. Though that doesn't make it any less of a dungeon. The smells of moss and mold cloud the air as the stone walls keeps every surface from being even remotely comfortable except for the floor. Guts seems to be the only one in this part of the dungeon since he can't hear anyone else. Guts continues to try to sort through his issues as the time continues to wear on. However a warming sensation signifies that a demon is drawing near and Guts can soon hear footsteps drawing nearer. Guts looks around and sees the man in the red plate armor walk into the view of his prison cell. However like before the man's eyes are black and now there's a strange mark on the left side of his face.

"Well, I wasn't expecting this. Another one of my clansmen is out of the seal. And in the open no less."

Guts quickly picks up what's going on and he keeps quiet. He just glares at the demon before him. The man in red armor smiles smugly at guts and shrugs at Gut's predicament. When Guts doesn't change his reaction the man raises an eyebrow at him.

"No need for such hostility. I'm on your side. The name's Fraudrin, but while I'm in the body I'm called Dreyfus. What's your name?"

Guts continues to glare at the demon. If Guts understood what Fraudrin said correctly, then that means that body isn't his. Guts wonders if it's a disguise or a possession. While Guts is wondering about that, Fraudrin continues to wonder what's going through this demon's head.

"You don't talk much. Listen, I've got a plan to release the rest of our kin. I'm sure you want in on it."

The moment Guts hears that he jumps to his feet and rushes towards the bars of his cell. Fraudin is able to jump back in time and his face betrays his shock as he watches Guts try to push against the bars of his cell to reach him. Guts grits his teeth and glares at Fraudin with pure animosity.

"Listen to me demon. I will kill you and all the rest of your kind, even if it's the last thing that I do!"

Fraudrin's jaw drops when he hears Guts say that. To think, one of his own kind would want to kill him. Fraudrin manages to recompose himself as he looks at Guts still trying to reach him with his right hand. Fraudrin just chuckles darkly to himself as he watches.

"So, you're a traitor like Meliodas. Well, I gave you a chance. I guess we'll have to see what happens at the trial tomorrow. See you there. I hope you can handle not having a head."

Fraudrin starts walking away and Guts steps away from the bars of his cell. Guts sits in the corner of his cell and goes back to trying to sort everything out. Having your entire life turned upside down does that to some people. As the day continues to drag on Guts can slowly start to feel his eyes droop as everything starts to weigh down on him. However the warming sensation returns as the last rays of the sun leave the dungeon. Small orbs of light starts to appear around Guts and he can hear quiet whispers coming from them. Guts jumps to his feet as adrenaline washes away his fatigue while he tries to figure out what's going on. One of the spheres of light floats in front of Guts and then it starts to form into what looks like a person. The person looks like a muscular dude with a couple tattoos and a severely receding hairline. Guts clenches his fist and is about to fight the spirit before him. The spirit holds up his hands defensively.

"Woah woah woah. There's no need to get violent. I'm not going to attack you. I just want to talk."

Guts' eye widens in shock and he unclenches his fist. He comes out of his fighting stance and he relaxes just a little bit. The spirit lets his arms fall down and he relaxes as well. Guts continues to glare at the spirit however. The spirit continues despite Guts' glare.

"We cool?"

Gut's stays silent as his eye keeps darting around his cell, watching every wisp of light, trying to see if any of them mean him harm. However the ghost in front of him takes it as a positive step away from "about to try to kill me again," so he continues what he was going to say.

"Alright. Listen, I don't know what's up with you and Drefus, and I don't care. I just wanted to ask you something."

Guts raises an eyebrow at that statement. The inside of Guts' head whirs as he tries to figure out why these spirits aren't just trying to kill him or possess him. He keeps his guard up and he faces off with the strange spirit that's trying to talk with him. For the time being it seems like whatever Griffith did to him, it means that the ghosts won't try to kill him. He's pretty sure that he's stuck like this for the time being, so he figures that he might as well see what the rules are.

"Okay."

The spirit smiles. He looks a little bit excited.

"You have no idea how long I've wanted to ask this. So me and the other spirits, we're trapped in this dungeon. We need your help to get out. Can you do it?"

Guts is slightly taken aback by the spirit's request. A ghost, needing his help? The idea is certainly a strange on. Guts frowns as he continues to glare at the ghost.

"And why should I help you?"

It's the spirit's turn to frown and scowl at Guts. He grunts and throws his arms up in frustration. Gut's gets ready to defend himself but instead of starting a fight the ghost just starts pacing in a small circle.

"Man, we need help here. We're trapped in these dungeons. We can't move on to the next life. Please, you've got to help us!"

The spirit waits patiently for Guts' answer, looking like he's at the end of his rope. Guts considers it for a bit before he just nods to the spirit. The spirit smiles and goes back into his ball form. He floats over to the rest of the spirits and Guts wonders what that was all about. Once the adrenaline leaves Guts' system his eyes finally drop and he falls asleep.

The blackness of Guts' mind goes on as Guts finds himself back inside his mind. A low growl sounds from behind Guts and when he turns around, he sees the Beast of Darkness. The Beast is much larger than the last time Guts was in his mind. The Beast looks at Guts with a gnarly grin on its face.

" _Well look at you, making nice with ghosts. I never thought that I'd see that. Though I suppose that's not too crazy._ "

Guts glares at the beast with a mixture of apathy and anger. It almost seems like he's more annoyed with The Beast than anything else. The Beast notices this and his smile falters just a little bit. Guts just keeps looking at the Beast until he speaks.

"Leave me be. I need to rest."

Guts turns away from The Beast and just starts walking away. The Beast smiles again, lightly chuckling to himself. He curls himself around a small object in the center of the dark mass that makes up his body. A small, egg shaped object.

" _Maybe that's for the best. Big things are coming._ "

For the first time in a long while, Gut's actually manages to get a decent amount of sleep. Even if nothing of note happened after he left The Beast in his mindscape, that's better than everything that preceded it, so that was worth something. However Guts' well deserved rest is cut short by the burning sensation of the spot his curse mark used to be. Guts' eye shoots open and he rapidly looks around to see who or what is causing his neck to burn. Soon enough he hears the clank of metal boots walking down the hallway towards his cell. He hears about three pairs of feet. As the steps get closer and closer, Guts readies himself for a fight and the burning gets worse and worse the closer the source gets to Guts. After a second, the cause of the burning walks into Gut's view. The knight in the golden armor with the long flowing white hair and green eyes steps in front of Guts' cell door. He's flanked by two guards who each are holding shackles and a stock. The golden knight just glares at Guts with disgust in his eyes. He then starts to unlock Guts' cell.

"Your trial starts very soon. I'd wish you good luck, but you don't deserve the courtesy."

Guts relaxes a little bit. At least this person seems to be working for the king. But why his neck is burning is confusing. This person doesn't seem to have any traits that would indicate that he's an apostle, but he's still making Guts' neck burn. Once the cell door is opened the guards that were flanking the knight quickly put Guts into his restraints. They start pulling him along and Guts follows them only putting up a little bit of resistance. As they're leaving however Guts suddenly stops right next to the exit. The guards try to pull on him, but Guts doesn't budge. The golden knight is about to intervene when Guts motions with his stump arm to someone who isn't there to follow him. The knight is confused for a moment before a bunch of lights starts flowing out of the hallway towards them. They fly by the four of them and out into the open air, disappear once they reach the outside. The knight's eyes widen at the sight. He looks back to Guts who's started to walk again. As they start making their way to the courthouse, the golden knight wonder what fate has in store for this strange creature.


End file.
